I Am Lightning

The next night, Joshua and I camped in small clearing surrounded by large rocks just next to the road. On the other side of the road was a large lake we’d been following for the later part of the day. Joshua and I both filled up our waterskins here. We hadn’t said much today. I’d kept a brisk pace, walking when the horses were tired, galloping when they weren’t. I always made sure to give them, and ourselves, a good few breaks though. The last thing I’d want to do would be to run Fall or Rise to their deaths.

I sat on top of a large rock and looked out over the calm, ice blue water. Large hills stretched away behind the lake, and the lake itself was large, but not very deep. Lake Lilac was its name. I knew we could catch fish there, but it wasn’t necessary. There were forests around the lake where elk, foxes, wolves, possums, rabbits and all sorts of other animals resided. Not that I would ever harm a wolf. I wasn’t sure if the connection between wolves and lightning people existed, but once, many years ago, Demeter had brought all the Masters together and had us choose an animal we would want to connect ourselves and our people with. It would be our symbol, and we could call upon them if ever we so desired.

Sirius had chosen faeries, which we all thought rather strange, but he seemed to have a reason for it. I wasn’t quite sure what their connection was with the cosmos, considering centaurs thrived at that time, but faeries it was. Thetis chose dolphins, whose intelligence and power were admired by us all. Old Tate picked the common sparrow, and said something wise about his decision which I cannot for the life of me remember. Vesta, I believed, picked the most awesome creature with which to make her bond- dragons; large, airborne, fire-breathing lizards with a nasty temper. It just fit so well.

I remember that I had wanted to pick cats. They had lightning fast reflexes, glowing eyes, mostly yellow at that, and a power and grace which left me forever in awe. However... I picked the wolf. I’d had an incident not long before with a pack of wolves. I’d stumbled upon them as they were hunting, and I admired their cunning, their teamwork, their ferocity, and the way they protected their young. That, along with their dark coats and yellow eyes reminded me of myself in a very strange way. I’d always been at Nova’s side then, and we’d always worked together and he’d been there to protect me the way the wolves protected one another. So I picked the wolf.

Demeter went on to pick raccoons. I liked that, raccoons are cute.

Anyway, as I sat atop that rock, Joshua came over to me and sat down beside me. I’d been waiting for him to bombard me with questions, and that’s exactly what happened.
“So I’m the only fire person?”
“Yes.”
“Were there ever more of us?”
“Yes, a whole realm.”
“Where are they? What happened to them?”
“They were all murdered.”
“Murdered!? By whom!?”
Vivid images flashed into my mind of broken buildings, broken bodies, broken everything. I shuddered.
“It was the shadows of this land. I believe the man of the shadow I fought seventeen years ago referred to them as the ‘the true, pure element’.” Another sudden section popped into my mind.
“It had said... ‘we realised the source of your power was the same as ours’...”

That meant... the shadows must have a shadow stone. Was that their weakness? A way to destroy them at last? Joshua’s talking interrupted my thoughts.
“You fought one when you were only like a year old? That’s impossible, Fulgora.”
I was wondering how he’d come to that conclusion when it clicked, and I grinned.
“How old exactly do you think I am, Joshua?”
“I dunno, you don’t even look as old as I am,” he said.
“No way, I’m definitely older. I look fifteen, or maybe even sixteen.”
“You don’t even know how old you are?
“Of course I do, I’m seven hundred and thirty-wait,” I said, realising I needed to add on seventeen years, “I’m seven hundred and fifty-five.”
Josh just gasped at me.
“Any more questions?” I asked.
“Of course I have more questions!” he said, and I could tell his brain was teeming with them. “How are you so old and not dead? Why do you look so young? Did you really fight a shadow? Where, what happened? How did-”
“Whoaaa slow down there.” I said, trying to keep up with it all. “I’m a lightning master, so I have near immortality. It’s the same as you, that’s why you haven’t grown these past couple of years. You are actually growing, just incredibly slowly. It’s something that happens to the master of their element for being chosen by their element to wield their element’s power. Man, I can’t believe how many times I said the word element in that sentence!” I gave a small laugh, and just as I paused for breath, Joshua bombarded me with more questions. We continued like this for a little longer, then finally, when Joshua had enough to think about, we sat back and watched small ripples float across the lake.

“Well, here we are,” I said.
Three days later we could see grey buildings popping out above a huge stone-brick wall. While Joshua had grown up in Alter City, this city was still massive to him, considering Alter City was only around a third of the size. Majestic City, the Capital, and home to King Edmund, rose from the horizon like some disfigured grey beast. The whole city was made of stone, and sat next to Lake Lily. When we reached the town, we were instantly pointed out, and people tripped backward away from us as we trotted through the town gates on our roan and black chargers.
“Hey Joshua, would you mind buying me a nice, concealing cloak while we’re here?” I said to him with a small grin. I noticed Joshua was actually quite upset about all the people freaking out over us.
“You can buy one for yourself too if you’d like,” I added, and he looked over at me and gave me a sort of grimace which I supposed was an attempt at a grateful grin. I accepted it as such either way.

The two of us headed to the nearest inn where we left our horses. Joshua paid for a room, but we kept all of our items with us. I didn’t trust people, not at all. Well... I glanced as Joshua as he looked at me, waiting for me to lead him to wherever we were heading next. I could trust Joshua, but only because of his dependence on me; a dependence that I was slowly going to eradicate as I made him strong and sure and independent.

We made our way to the sprawling market bustling with masses of people. Here we were bumped into and jostled about in the first few minutes until people learned to stay away from us. Not that we did anything to warrant this, it was once again that people were scared of us. I took it in my stride. I’m not so sure how Joshua was going, but he’d get used to it. Finally we located the main trader and made a beeline for it. Well, a sort of beeline. People parted to make way for us.

I really didn’t like this cold stone city. The place was too full of uncaring people, and it was so... grey. There were no trees and no grass to be found within the city, except for maybe the royal garden up at the palace. I’d been there a few times before as an honoured guest, but of course that was a very long time ago. There had always been a King and Queen as well as the Element Masters, but we lived in harmony, even though we mostly lived apart from one another. They lived with the mages, and the elements lived in the Realms. That’s just the way it was. But it wasn’t long after the fall of the elements that the commonfolk started to fear the mages, and cast them out. What a sad time that was. I stayed away from all the cities during that time, for fear I would somehow make things worse. I wasn’t really in a very stable situation then, myself.

But anyway. I opened the door into the trader’s place, and a little bell tinkled over our heads as we entered. There stood a man, mousy brown hair and melon seed eyes, looking up to see us enter. His expression changed from idly curious to shocked.
“So,” I said to him as we entered, “are you the trader who received a ruby from Lord Martin of Alter City about... three years ago?”
The man’s eyes flickered to Joshua and, if possible, grew even wider.
“I... that was my apprentice who I send out to do these sort of things. But I did receive it here, yes.”
“Do you still have it?” I asked.
“I- well, no, no I don’t have it, no.” The man shuffled uncomfortably and looked down at the countertop. “ I had a very hard time selling it, mind you. People seemed to believe it was some sort of magic stone from the way it glowed as though it were made of fire. But- well yes, I did sell it, yes.”
He looked up at me and I raised my eyebrows as an indication to keep going.
“Yes I remember yes, it was uh... an older lady yes, said she lived in the palace, I believe she said she needed a jewel for her uh cane, yes that was it, for her cane. Yes, I only sold it a couple of months ago, yes, said I had a bit of trouble for that one. Got a high price for it though, yes I did.” He gave a small smile, and then looked back up at my face, and the smile slipped away.
“Uh let me see here, I may have written it down, I do keep a small record of the things I receive and who it is sold to if they supply their name, yes, and she was of such a dignified sort, yes, let me see...” he dived under his counter and came back up, producing a large, thick and rather ancient looking book. He rifled through the dusty pages for a few minutes before finding what he was after.
“Yes here we are... Madam Tulip it says here. Tulip, what a funny name!” he said a gave a small, awkward laugh which died rather quickly.
“Yes, quite,” I replied. “Thank you for your time,” I said, then Joshua and I turned from the shop and left.
“Well that worked out well, didn’t it?” he said to me once we were out in the noisy market, our voices over-ridden with buyers and sellers, dogs and children and an annoying town crier.
“It did work out very well. I don’t think many people would have been allowed to ask for the record of a trade, but thanks to our intimidation, we got what we needed.”
“You mean your intimidation,” Joshua said, but I ignored him. I looked to our left, and studied the city as it cluttered its way upwards, eventually hitting the massive, ugly palace which had its own massive wall around it, and guards absolutely everywhere. Why, oh why did the old lady have to live in the bloody palace? I fervently hoped we wouldn’t have to meet King Edmund.

But there was the whole getting into the royal palace thing that came first. You had to have a fairly good reason to get into that place. I looked over at Joshua, son of Lord Martin, and decided I had an excellent one.